Cole instructed the group on the finer points of the Vampire Transformer, while Tamara sketched a visual interpretation. (And saved our post from having no art since we forgot the camera!)

We arrived at the St. Francis of Assisi Shamrock 10K with 20 minutes to spare, after a nice long drive to Mocksville with Barefoot Josh and our little kids, who introduced Josh to the joy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Barbie princess books. The race organizers had kindly set up a childcare area staffed by the local YMCA, so we dropped off the kids and went off to calculate the proper combination of layers to suit the sunny, 40-something-degree weather. Barefoot Josh started out as Sock-Wearing Josh, but soon returned to his roots as the pavement warmed up.

The 5K race was finishing as we arrived, and as we lined up for the 10K, Harvey and I realized that we might be slightly out of our league. In our previous races (5Ks, mostly) the other runners seemed to be a nice mix of fit racers and getting-fit joggers. At this race, however, there were few people in the small crowd who seemed to be at a similar fitness level to us, and most looked lean and fast. No matter; we were there to finish and enjoy the run, not to win. We lined up at the back with Josh, who then darted back to the tents to dispose of his water bottle, missing the actual start. Still, he promptly caught up with us, ran with us for a little way, then headed off at his pace.

Since this was our first 10K, Harvey and I more or less stuck to our plan of walking one minute of every ten. The running tour of Mocksville was good for discussion, and we concluded that Mocksville probably had more pool halls per person than most towns. We played leapfrog with some of the slower runners, but didn’t do much passing or getting passed otherwise. As we reached the end, Josh doubled back and ran in with us for the last half-mile or so. We felt great at the end and had enough energy left to sprint to the finish.

We collected the kids, then collected our post-race nosh: pizza, Subway sandwiches, enchiladas, taquitos, and brownies. After some time spent chasing the kids through the crowd (including a tense minute for Josh when I asked him to keep an eye on the kids at the same moment that our youngest decided to play hide-and-seek in the crowd, after which I’m sure Josh congratulated himself on the wisdom of being sans rugrats), we headed to the car, grabbed a cup of coffee and well-earned muffin, then headed home.

Times aren’t posted yet, but Josh noted his at about 55:33. Harvey and I were probably closer to 1:20, which is fine by us. It gives us a PR to knock down the next time.

Beautiful day. Nice race. Looking forward to the next one.

—Tamara